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Thursday, January 31, 2008
Written Guardianship
Wow, this blog has changed thanks to Rob! I come back and wonder whose blog this is. Nice work Hon! Ah, the writtens
are in Holt and BSSK hands. Now on to Anant's passport and ICPC approval (some kind of agreement between Oregon-where Holt
is located-and PA). I was praying yesterday that these would come in last night in India (being that was morning in India).
But God did it before then. Holt had already gotten word of the written guardianship yesterday. Mary was sending out the ICPC
paperwork this morning. So, a few days in Oregon for processing then to Harrisburg and then back to Oregon. Pray for these
steps to go quickly. We would love to leave sometime between Feb 20-27. Also pray for some cheap tickets, hotels and
other various expenses!
We also got Anant's developmental report. The new picture above came from it. He is very cute (and I'm not partial or
anything!). Anant is getting speech therapy to help with his language development. He seems like a sweet child from his reports.
Oh, except for the part that says that he bites and pushes other children when they take his toys. He does seem to be doing
well in many ways. You can also see his personality coming out.
Keep praying for our friend Michell. Her judge returnes from his Mother's funeral on Feb 6 so we pray that he will understand
that Anvita needs parents like he was blessed to have. Pray for God to move his heart toward this family.
Mary
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Verbal Guardianship!
Its official. Rob and I are Anant's parents. Verbally, it happened on January
18th. In writing, well, that's in the works. Holt says it should take 2 weeks. Then the document will be e-mailed to Holt
to work on the ICPC approval. They say that it takes about 3 days in Oregon then Fed ex to Harrisburg. Our local Social Worker
says that it takes about 1 week here to complete this then it will be mailed back to Oregon (so, all in all, about 2 weeks
for this). Simultaneously, Anant's passport will be applied for by BSSK in India which takes about 10-15 days. Once the ICPC
is recieved in Oregon and Anant has a passport, then we can make travel plans. We are so gratful to God for allowing this
process to go so quickly for us and so smoothly. He is the one who did all of this. It is amazing to us.
Psalm 113:9 says:
He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the LORD!
Exclamation point mine.
My heart mirror's Mary's song in Luke 1 as well:
46And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48for
he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From
now on all generations will call me blessed,
49for the
Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation
to generation.
51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he
has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52He has brought
down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the
rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering
to be merciful
55to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even
as he said to our fathers."
Our friend Michell who is adopting from Bangalore, India through Holt is having a much harder time. Please pray for her
as you read this. She has had her referral for Anvita since February of last year (to give you some perspecive we had Anants
referral in September of last year. Her verbal guardianship was scheduled for last week on Jan 17. She did not get it yet
and the judge's Mother has died so he will be back in 10 days. Please pray that this judge will have a heart for passing these
guardianship cases. The judges in Bangalore apparently have heavy workloads and the guardianships are not as much
a priority. Pray for Michell, I don't know how much more she can take.
Continue to pray for the BSSK employees, and our friend Lisa and her family who lost their little girl, Savani,
last week. Our hearts are happy for our news but we still ache with them.
Mary
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Tonight's The Night
Just realized from a friend (who is much more on top of things than I am) that our court date is in a few hours. Its
4:21am in Mumbai, India (which is near the court in Pune where they will be deciding whether to give us verbal guardianship).
Please pray that God will continue to give us favor with the judges there and we will have verbal guardianship tonight. We
will not know if we got it until Tuesday most likely due to the lag time in communication and Monday being a Holt holiday.
Thanks everyone for your support and prayers.
Mary
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Death
We just found out that a friend who is adopting from the same facility in Inda lost their child yesterday. We are in
shock and we weep with Lisa and her family with the loss of Lucy Savani. Please pray for them.
Mary
Timelines
Just wanted to post about some more information after talking with our Social Worker here in PA and reading more online.
If we do get verbal guardianship on Friday here is a likely scenario:
January 18: Verbal Guardianship granted?
February 1: Written Guardianship granted?
February 15: Anant's passport & ICPC Approval (some crazy thing between Oregon and Pennsylvania that we
need to bring Anant to PA) granted?
Its possible that some of these things will happen faster than we anticipated but above is the way it would seem to play
out. Only God knows the timing.
Some prayer requests:
Pray for the dates/approvals to happen earlier then planned (of course Lord willing)
- Pray for cheap airline tickets (when we are told we can go and get Anant buying a ticket for a sooner date will be hard
as you know the price goes up the sooner you want a ticket)
- Pray for our hearts to cast our anxieties on Him
- Pray for my neck/back pain as it is suddenly acting up again, I'm concerned about carrying a 2 year old around
- Pray for us to keep living in the "here and now" trusting God for each day and working as unto the Lord not for man in
our jobs (hard to focus-at least for me)
- Pray for us (me at least) to remain outward focused
Thank you all for your prayers and support of us. What a roller coaster ride this seems like!
Mary
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Verbal Guardianship
We received a phone call today from Holt International saying that we would most likely be getting our verbal guardianship
of Anant granted on January 18! Which means that we probably did have at least one other court date and maybe it was in December?
No matter what the story is this is great news. After this we wait for written guardianship then his passport and an approval
within our state here in the US which may take about 6-9 weeks. It would seem that mid March is a possibility.
Praise God. I can't believe this is actually happening.
Mary
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Our Adoption Process of Anant
- April 9, 2006 Anant is born in Aurangabad, India
- Spring?, 2006 Mom and Dad meet with a social worker about India adoption and become discouraged that
the road can be long and difficult
- March 15-30, 2007 Mom and Dad visit India
- April 23, 2007 Dad inquires of Holt about India adoption
- May 10, 2007 application for home study (report by local social worker with all kinds of
personal information about us-basically a report about our family) started
- July 27, 2007 joined waiting child program with Holt
- August 9, 2007 Home Study approved by Holt International Childrens Services in Eugene, OR
- August 27, 2007 New Waiting Child listing sent out with guess who in it
- September 8, 2007 fingerprinted in Center City Philadelphia for filing of I600A (US approval for us
to adopt-finalized in India)
- September 13, 2007 Waiting Child Committee accepts us as Anant's parents!
- September 22, 2007 completed Dossier (Stack of official papers about us that go to India) sent
to Holt--Whew!
- September 26, 2007 I600A approval from US Gov-fingerprints cleared.
- September 27, 2007 Anant's acceptance papers sent to Holt
- October 12, 2007 Paperwork sent to BSSK (the childcare agency in India where Anant lives) for India process to begin!
- October 20, 2007 BSSK has looked over our papers and filed for No Objection Status with the Indian government
- December 3, 2007 Holt called to tell us we have our No Objection Certificate (actually dated 11/27/07-see post regarding
the importance of this date on 12/9/07). This will now be filed in the local (Pune, Maharastra) court for guardianship.
- December 6, 2007 Received word that our I600A approval has indeed reached New Delhi (this is needed in order to bring
Anant home. The other part of this is showing up with him at the US Embassy in New Delhi to do the I600 and complete his visa
with a medical evaluation! Now it will be legal for us to bring him home.
- January 18,2008 We are notified of receiving Verbal Gaurdianship of Anant.
- January 30, 2008 We receive Written Gaurdianship of Anant Blake. It also happens to be Rob's Father's
birthday.
- February 22, 2008 leave for India
- February 25, 2008 meet and take home Thomas Anant Blake (This happens to be Mary's Dad's Birthday)
- February 29, 2008 leave India
- March 1, 2008 home!!! YAY.
- April 29, 2008 Alien Registration Card Received
- August 1, 2008 Applied for SS#/Card (should have done this sooner)
- August 8, 2008 SS#/Card Received
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Anant's words: pretty much said in this order
Momma
Bye
Hi
Ball
Up
Down
Uh Oh
Amen
Ball
All Done
Eeew
Wow
Yay
Bible
Out (referring to Derby to get out of the kitchen and stop eating his food! You can tell we say this a lot)
Ow
Hot (means hot and cold and blows on the food whether hot or cold)
Apple
Anant (pronounced Ana)
More
Egg
Water
Banana
Head
Hide
Peek
Makes a car sound
Makes a dog sound (I'm told by the speech therapist that these count! So I'm counting them)
elbow (4/23/08)
Bowl(4/24/08)
Orange
Strawberry (Pronounced Sraugh-not sure whether to count this or not?)
Waffle
Hello (4/25/07)
Eye
Cup
Mouth (sounds like mou)
House 4/26/08
Please Momma 4/28/08
Cracker
Choo choo (train sound)
Makes a monkey noise
Tea 4/30/08
5/08: Sock, Shoe, Derby, Dog, Bath, Bag, Door, Fork, Spoon, Bath, Reina, Dance, Cry, Deep, Wide, Bubbles, Bird, Nana,
Bus, Eat, Milk, Bus, Nana, Door, Nathaniel (pronounced Nuh), Chop (chop Derby's food), Ear, Open, Hand, Off, On, Cheese, Girl,
Fish, Josh, chair, teeth, know (song), car, bucket, Gritts, Moon, J.J. (our neighbor's name), Sooby (as in Scooby-Doo, sounds
like scoo), Cold, Wet, Broccoli, Close, Happy, Poo-Poo, Pee Pee, Plane, Come, Cut, Church, Natalie (sounds like Na), Melon,
1,2,5 (yes, in that order), Spoon, Fork, Scoop
6/08: Vacuum, Peas, Bib, Lid, Sky, Star, Big, Money, Baby, Nana, Pool. Too many words to keep up with now.
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